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Whatever Poets May Write, Or Fools Believe, Of Rural Innocence And Truth, And Of The Perfidy Of Courts, This Is Most Undoubtedly True,--that Shepherds And Ministers Are Both Men; Their Natures And Passions The Same, The Modes Of Them Only Different.

-Lord Chesterfield

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Whatever Poets May Write,

Lord Chesterfield

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Whatever Poets May Write, Or Fools Believe, Of Rural Innocence And Truth, And Of The Perfidy Of Courts, This Is Most Undoubtedly True,--that Shepherds And Ministers Are Both Men; Their Natures And Passions The Same, The Modes Of Them Only Different.

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Pray Be Always In Motion. Early In The Morning Go And See Things; And The Rest Of The Day Go And See People. If You Stay But A Week At A Place, And That An Insignificant One, See, However, All That Is To Be Seen There; Know As Many People, And Get Into As Many Houses As Ever You Can.

A Man Of Sense May Be In Haste, But Can Never Be In A Hurry.

Never Write Down Your Speeches Beforehand; If You Do, You May Perhaps Be A Good Declaimer, But Will Never Be A Debater.

We Are Hardly Ever Grateful For A Fine Clock Or Watch When It Goes Right, And We Pay Attention To It Only When It Falters, For Then We Are Caught By Surprise. It Ought To Be The Other Way About.

Our Self-love Is Mortified, When We Think Our Opinions, And Even Our Tastes, Customs, And Dresses, Either Arraigned Or Condemned;as, On The Contrary, It Is Tickled And Flattered By Approbation.

A Wise Man Will Live As Much Within His Wit As Within His Income.

All I Can Say, In Answer To This Kind Queries [of Friends] Is That I Have Not The Distemper Called The Plague; But That I Have Allthe Plagues Of Old Age, And Of A Shattered Carcase.

Not To Perceive The Little Weaknesses And The Idle But Innocent Affectations Of The Company May Be Allowable As A Sort Of Polite Duty. The Company Will Be Pleased With You If You Do, And Most Probably Will Not Be Reformed By You If You Do Not.

I Knew A Gentleman Who Was So Good A Manager Of His Time That He Would Not Even Lose That Small Portion Of It Which The Calls Of Nature Obliged Him To Pass In The Necessary-house; But Gradually Went Through All The Latin Poets In Those Moments.

Never Hold Anyone By The Button Or The Hand In Order To Be Heard Out; For If People Are Unwilling To Hear You, You Had Better Hold Your Tongue Than Them.

Whenever A Man Seeks Your Advice He Generally Seeks Your Praise.

Take Rather Than Give The Tone To The Company You Are In. If You Have Parts You Will Show Them More Or Less Upon Every Subject; And If You Have Not, You Had Better Talk Sillily Upon A Subject Of Other People's Than Of Your Own Choosing.

I Can Hardly Bring Myself To Caution You Against Drinking, Because I Am Persuaded That I Am Writing To A Rational Creature, A Gentleman, And Not To A Swine. However, That You May Not Be Insensibly Drawn Into That Beastly Custom Of Even Sober Drinking And Sipping, As The Sots Call It, I Advise You To Be Of No Club Whatsoever.

Seek Always For The Best Words And The Happiest Expression You Can Find.

Nothing Is More Dissimilar Than Natural And Acquired Politeness. The First Consists In A Willing Abnegation Of Self; The Second In A Compelled Recollection Of Others.

In The Ordinary Course Of Things, How Many Succeed In Society Merely By Virtue Of Their Manners, While Others, However Meritorious, Fail Through Lack Of Them? After All, It's Only Barbarians Who Wear Uncut Precious Stones.

Precious Stones

The Best Way To Compel Weak-minded People To Adopt Our Opinion, Is To Frighten Them From All Others, By Magnifying Their Danger.

Let Them Show Me A Cottage Where There Are Not The Same Vices Of Which They Accuse The Courts.

The Law Before Us, My Lords, Seems To Be The Effect Of That Practice Of Which It Is Intended Likewise To Be The Cause, And To Be Dictated By The Liquor Of Which It So Effectually Promotes The Use; For Surely It Never Before Was Conceived By Any Man Entrusted With The Administration Of Public Affairs, To Raise Taxes By The Destruction Of The People.

To Govern Mankind, One Must Not Overrate Them.

Man Is More Himself, Man Is More Manlike, When Joy Is The Fundamental Thing In Him, And Grief The Superficial.

There Is A Certain Jargon, Which, In French, I Should Call Un Persiflage D'affaires, That A Foreign Minister Ought To Be Perfectlymaster Of, And May Be Used Very Advantageously At Great Entertainments, In Mixed Companies, And In All Occasions Where He Must Speak, And Should Say Nothing. Well Turned And Well Spoken, It Seems To Mean Something, Though In Truth It Means Nothing. It Is A Kind Of Political Badinage, Which Prevents Or Removes A Thousand Difficulties, To Which A Foreign Minister Is Exposed In Mixed Conversations.

People Hate Who Makes You Feel One's Inferiority.

A Man Who Tells Nothing, Or Who Tells All, Will Equally Have Nothing Told Him.

Sincerity W The Most Compendious Wisdom, An Excellent Instrument For The Speedy Despatch Of Business. It Creates Confidence In Those We Have To Deal With, Saves The Labor Of Many Inquiries, And Brings Things To An Issue In Few Words.

When A Man Is Once In Fashion, All He Does Is Right.

If We Do Not Plant Knowledge When Young, It Will Give Us No Shade When We Are Old.

Those Who Travel Heedlessly From Place To Place, Observing Only Their Distance From Each Other, And Attending Only To Their Accommodation At The Inn At Night, Set Out Fools, And Will Certainly Return So

In The Mass Of Mankind, I Fear, There Is Too Great A Majority Of Fools And Knaves; Who, Singly From Their Number, Must To A Certain Degree Be Respected, Though They Are By No Means Respectable.

Speak The Language Of The Company You Are In; Speak It Purely, And Unlarded With Any Other.

Artichoke: That Vegetable Of Which One Has More At The Finish Than At The Start Of Dinner.

Hear One Side And You Will Be In The Dark. Hear Both And All Will Be Clear.

I Have Seen Many People, Who While You Are Speaking To Them, Instead, Of Looking At, And Attending To You, Fix Their Eyes Upon The Ceiling, Or Some Other Part Of The Room, Look Out Of The Window, Play With A Dog, Twirl Their Snuff-box, Or Pick Their Nose. Nothing Discovers A Little, Futile, Frivolous Mind More Than This, And Nothing Is So Offensively Ill-bred.

We Are As Often Duped By Diffidence As By Confidence.

Talk Often, But Never Long; In That Case, If You Do Not Please, At Least You Are Sure Not To Tire Your Hearers. Pay Your Own Reckoning, But Do Not Treat The Whole Company; This Being One Of The Few Cases In Which People Do Not Care To Be Treated, Every One Being Fully Convinced That He Has Wherewithal To Pay.

Young Men Are Apt To Think Themselves Wise Enough, As Drunken Men Are Apt To Think Themselves Sober Enough.

Indifference Is Commonly The Mother Of Discretion.

Few People Do Business Well, Who Do Nothing Else.

The World Is A Country Which Nobody Ever Yet Knew By Description; One Must Travel Through It One's Self To Be Acquainted With It.

Montesquieu Well Knew, And Justly Admired, The Happy Constitution Of This Country [great Britain], Where Fixed And Known Laws Equally Restrain Monarchy From Tyranny And Liberty From Licentiousness.

Women Have, In General, But Ne Object, Which Is Their Beauty; Upon Which, Scarce Any Flattery Is Too Gross For Them To Swallow.

We Are, In Truth, More Than Half What We Are By Imitation.

Dispatch Is The Soul Of Business, And Nothing Contributes More To Dispatch Than Method.

Keep Carefully Not Of All Scrapes And Quarrels. They Lower A Character Extremely; And Are Particularly Dangerous In France, Wherea Man Is Dishonoured By Not Resenting An Affront, And Utterly Ruined By Resenting It.

Whatever You Do, Do It To The Purpose; Do It Thoroughly, Not Superficially. Go To The Bottom Of Things. Any Thing Half Done, Or Half Known, Is In My Mind, Neither Done Nor Known At All. Nay, Worse, For It Often Misleads.

Most Maxim-mongers Have Preferred The Prettiness To The Justness Of A Thought, And The Turn To The Truth; But I Have Refused Myself To Everything That My Own Experience Did Not Justify And Confirm.

The Difference Between A Man Of Sense And A Fop Is That The Fop Values Himself Upon His Dress; And The Man Of Sense Laughs At It, At The Same Time He Knows He Must Not Neglect It.

In Nature The Most Violent Passions Are Silent; In Tragedy They Must Speak And Speak With Dignity Too.

Women, Then, Are Only Children Of A Larger Growth

The Talent Of Insinuation Is More Useful Than That Of Persuasion, As Everybody Is Open To Insinuation, But Scarce Any To Persuasion.

Real Friendship Is A Slow Grower.

Real Friendship

How Often Should A Woman Be Pregnant? Continually, Or Hardly Ever? Or Must There Be A Certain Number Of Pregnancy Anniversaries Established By Fashion? What Do You, At The Age Of Forty-three, Have To Say On The Subject? Is It A Fact That The Laws Of Nature, Or Of The Country, Or Of Propriety, Have Ordained This Time Of Life For Sterility?

Distrust Those Who Love You Extremely Upon A Slight Acquaintance, And Without Any Visible Reason.

Good Breeding Is The Result Of Good Sense, Some Good Nature, And A Little Self-denial For The Sake Of Others.

The Most Ignorant Are The Boldest Conjecturers.

We Are In Truth, More Than Half What We Are By Imitation. The Great Point Is To Choose Good Models And To Study Them With Care.

I Could Wish There Were A Treaty Made Between The French And The English Theatres, In Which Both Parties Should Make Considerableconcessions. The English Ought To Give Up Their Notorious Violations Of The Unities, And All Their Massacres, Racks, Dead Bodies, And Mangled Carcasses, Which They So Frequently Exhibit Upon Their Stage. The French Should Engage To Have More Action, And Less Declamation, And Not To Cram And To Crowd Things Together To Almost A Degree Of Impossibility From A Too Scrupulous Adherence To The Unities.

Truth, But Not The Whole Truth, Must Be The Invariable Principle Of Every Man Who Hath Either Religion, Honour, Or Prudence. Thosewho Violate It, May Be Cunning, But They Are Not Able. Lies And Perfidy Are The Refuge Of Fools And Cowards.

No Woman Ever Yet Either Reasoned Or Acted Long Together Consequentially; But Some Little Thing, Some Love, Some Resentment, Somepresent Momentary Interest, Some Supposed Slight, Or Some Humour, Always Breaks In Upon, And Oversets Their Most Prudent Resolutions And Schemes.

I Have, By Long Experience, Found Women To Be Like Telephus's Spear: If One End Kills, The Other Cures.

May You Live As Long As You Are Fit To Live, But No Longer, Or, May You Rather Die Before You Cease To Be Fit To Live Than After!

Women Especially As To Be Talked To As Below Men, And Above Children.

The Most Familiar And Intimate Habitudes, Connections, Friendships, Require A Degree Of Good-breeding Both To Preserve And Cement Them.

There Is Not A More Prudent Maxim, Than To Live With One's Enemies As If They May One Day Become One's Friends; As It Commonly Happens, Sooner Or Later, In The Vicissitudes Of Political Affairs.

You Must Embrace The Man You Hate, If You Cannot Be Justified In Knocking Him Down.

Whoever Plays Deep Must Necessarily Lose His Money Or His Character.

Frequent And Loud Laughter Is The Characteristic Of Folly And Ill Manners.

Vulgarism In Language Is The Distinguishing Characteristic Of Bad Company, And A Bad Education. A Man Of Fashion Avoids Nothing With More Care Than That. Proverbial Expressions, And Trite Sayings, Are The Flowers Of The Rhetoric Of Vulgar Man.

Two People Cannot Be Alone Together For Upwards Of Half An Hour Without One Emerging As The Superior.

Know The True Value Of Time; Snatch, Seize, And Enjoy Every Moment Of It.

There Is Nothing That People Bear More Impatiently, Or Forgive Less, Than Contempt: And An Injury Is Much Sooner Forgotten Than An Insult.

Insult To Injury

Young Men Are As Apt To Think Themselves Wise Enough, As Drunken Men Are To Think Themselves Sober Enough. They Look Upon Spirit To Be A Much Better Thing Than Experience; Which They Call Coldness. They Are But Half Mistaken; For Though Spirit Without Experience Is Dangerous, Experience Without Spirit Is Languid And Ineffective.

Those Whom You Can Make Like Themselves Better Will, I Promise You, Like You Very Well.

When You Have Found Out The Prevailing Passion Of Any Man, Remember Never To Trust Him Where That Passion Is Concerned.

No Man Tastes Pleasures Truly, Who Does Not Earn Them By Previous Business; And Few People Do Business Well, Who Do Nothing Else.

I Often Wish For The End Of The Wretched Remnant Of My Life; And That Wish Is A Rational One; But Then The Innate Principle Of Self-preservation, Wisely Implanted In Our Natures, For Obvious Purposes, Opposes That Wish, And Makes Us Endeavour To Spin Out Our Thread As Long As We Can, However Decayed And Rotten It May Be.

Take The Tone Of The Company You Are In...

There Is Hardly Anybody Good For Everything, And There Is Scarcely Anybody Who Is Absolutely Good For Nothing.

The Only Solid And Lasting Peace Between A Man And His Wife Is, Doubtless, A Separation.

Men Are Much More Unwilling To Have Their Weaknesses And Their Imperfections Known, Than Their Crimes; And, If You Hint To A Man That You Think Him Silly, Ignorant, Or Even Ill-bred Or Awkward, He Will Hate You More, And Longer, Than If You Tell Him Plainly That You Think Him A Rogue.

Choose The Company Of Your Superiors Whenever You Can Have It.

Fear Manifested Invites Danger.

Anne Of Austria (with Great Submission To A Crowned Head Do I Say It) Was A B----. She Had Spirit And Courage Without Parts, Devotion Without Common Morality, And Lewdness Without Tenderness Either To Justify Or To Dignify It. Her Two Sons Were No More Lewis The Thirteen's Than They Were Mine.

A Judicious Reticence Is Hard To Learn, But It Is One Of The Great Lessons Of Life.

Six, Or At Most Seven, Hours' Sleep Is, For A Constancy, As Much As You Or Anybody Else Can Want; More Is Only Laziness And Dozing, And Is, I Am Persuaded, Both Unwholesome And Stupefying.

I Recommend To You To Take Care Of The Minutes; For Hours Will Take Care Of Themselves. I Am Very Sure, That Many People Lose Two Or Three Hours Every Day, By Not Taking Care Of The Minutes.

Patience Is The Most Necessary Quality For Business, Many A Man Would Rather You Heard His Story Than Grant His Request.

Absolute Power Can Only Be Supported By Error, Ignorance And Prejudice.

The World Can Doubtless Never Be Well Known By Theory: Practice Is Absolutely Necessary; But Surely It Is Of Great Use To A Young Man, Before He Sets Out For That Country, Full Of Mazes, Windings, And Turnings, To Have At Least A General Map Of It, Made By Some Experienced Traveler.

Regularity In The Hours Of Rising And Retiring, Perseverance In Exercise, Adaptation Of Dress To The Variations Of Climate, Simple And Nutritious Aliment, And Temperance In All Things Are Necessary Branches Of The Regimen Of Health.

Polished Brass Will Pass Upon More People Than Rough Gold.

I Really Think Next To The Consciousness Of Doing A Good Action, That Of Doing A Civil One Is The Most Pleasing; And The Epithet Which I Should Covet The Most Next To That Of Aristides, Would Be That Of Well-bred.

Armies, Though Always The Supporters And Tools Of Absolute Power For The Time Being, Are Always The Destroyers Of It Too; By Frequently Changing The Hands In Which They Think Proper To Lodge It.

Mankind Is Made Up Of Inconsistencies, And No Man Acts Invariably Up To His Predominant Character. The Wisest Man Sometimes Acts Weakly, And The Weakest Sometimes Wisely.

You Must Look Into People, As Well As At Them.

Gold And Silver Are But Merchandise, As Well As Cloth Or Linen; And That Nation That Buys The Least, And Sells The Most, Must Always Have The Most Money.

Women's Beauty, Like Men's Wit, Is Generally Fatal To The Owners.

Study The Heart And The Mind Of Man, And Begin With Your Own. Meditation And Reflection Must Lay The Foundation Of That Knowledge, But Experience And Practice Must, And Alone Can, Complete It.

In My Mind, There Is Nothing So Illiberal, And So Ill-bred, As Audible Laughter.

Honest Error Is To Be Pitied Not Ridiculed.

Few Fathers Care Much For Their Sons, Or At Least, Most Of Them Care More For Their Money. Of Those Who Really Love Their Sons, Few Know How To Do It.

Knowledge Of The World In Only To Be Acquired In The World, And Not In A Closet.

There Is Hardly Any Place Or Any Company Where You May Not Gain Knowledge, If You Please; Almost Everybody Knows Some One Thing, And Is Glad To Talk About That One Thing.

The Young Leading The Young, Is Like The Blind Leading The Blind; "they Will Both Fall Into The Ditch.

It Is Commonly Said That Ridicule Is The Best Test Of Truth; For That It Will Not Stick Where It Is Not Just. I Deny It. A Truth Learned In A Certain Light, And Attacked In Certain Words, By Men Of Wit And Humor, May, And Often Doth, Become Ridiculous, At Least So Far, That The Truth Is Only Remembered And Repeated For The Sake Of The Ridicule.

Dispatch Is The Soul Of Business.

Most People Enjoy The Inferiority Of Their Best Friends.

Remember That The Wit, Humour, And Jokes Of Most Mixed Companies Are Local. They Thrive In That Particular Soil, But Will Not Often Bear Transplanting.

I Assisted At The Birth Of That Most Significant Word "flirtation," Which Dropped From The Most Beautiful Mouth In The World.

Either A Good Or A Bad Reputation Outruns And Gets Before People Wherever They Go.

Human Condition

Dancing Is, In Itself, A Very Trifling And Silly Thing: But It Is One Of Those Established Follies To Which People Of Sense Are Sometimes Obliged To Conform; And Then They Should Be Able To Do It Well. And Though I Would Not Have You A Dancer, Yet, When You Do Dance, I Would Have You Dance Well, As I Would Have You Do Everything You Do Well.

Men, As Well As Women, Are Much Oftener Led By Their Hearts Than By Their Understandings.

Words Are The Dress Of Thoughts; Which Should No More Be Presented In Rags, Tatters, And Dirt Than Your Person Should.

Whoever Is In A Hurry Shows That The Thing He Is About Is Too Big For Him.

Give Nobly To Indigent Merit, And Do Not Refuse Your Charity Even To Those Who Have Not Merit But Their Misery.

A Vulgar Man Is Captious And Jealous; Eager And Impetuous About Trifles. He Suspects Himself To Be Slighted, And Thinks Everything That Is Said Meant At Him.

Wear Your Knowledge Like Your Watch - In You Pocket - And Don't Pull It Out Just For Show.

It Is Reported Here That The King Of Prussia Has Gone Mad And Has Been Locked Up. There Would Be Nothing Bad About That: At Leastthat Might Of His Would No Longer Be A Menace, And You Could Breathe Freely For A While. I Much Prefer Madmen Who Are Locked Up To Those Who Are Not.

Wise People May Say What They Will, But One Passion Is Never Cured By Another.

The Heart Never Grows Better By Age; I Fear Rather Worse; Always Harder.

I Look Upon Indolence As A Sort Of Suicide; For The Man Is Effectually Destroyed, Though The Appetites Of The Brute May Survive.

Those Who See And Observe Kings, Heroes, And Statesmen, Discover That They Have Headaches, Indigestion, Humors And Passions, Just Like Other People; Every One Of Which In Their Turns Determine Their Wills In Defiance Of Their Reason.

The Power Of Applying Attention, Steady And Undissipated, To A Single Object, Is The Sure Mark Of Superior Genius.

As Kings Are Begotten And Born Like Other Men, It Is To Be Presumed That They Are Of The Human Species; And Perhaps, Had They Thesame Education, They Might Prove Like Other Men. But, Flattered From Their Cradles, Their Hearts Are Corrupted, And Their Heads Are Turned, So That They Seem To Be A Species By Themselves.... Flattery Cannot Be Too Strong For Them; Drunk With It From Their Infancy, Like Old Drinkers, They Require Dreams.

If You Can Once Engage People's Pride, Love, Pity, Ambition (or Whatever Is Their Prevailing Passion) On Your Side, You Need Not Fear What Their Reason Can Do Against You.

Endeavor, As Much As You Can, To Keep Company With People Above You.... Do Not Mistake, When I Say Company Above You, And Think That I Mean With Regard To Their Birth; That Is The Least Consideration; But I Mean With Regard To Their Merit, And The Light In Which The World Considers Them.

A Man Of The Best Parts And Greatest Learning, If He Does Not Know The World By His Own Experience And Observation, Will Be Very Absurd, And Consequently Very Unwelcome In Company. He May Say Very Good Things; But They Will Be Probably So Ill-timed, Misplaced, Or Improperly Addressed, That He Had Much Better Hold His Tongue.

The Greatest Dangers Have Their Allurements, If The Want Of Success Is Likely To Be Attended With A Degree Of Glory. Middling Dangers Are Horrid, When The Loss Of Reputation Is The Inevitable Consequence Of Ill Success.

If You Love Music Hear It; Go To Operas, Concerts, And Pay Fiddlers To Play To You; But I Insist Upon Your Neither Piping Nor Fiddling Yourself. It Puts A Gentleman In A Very Frivolous, Contemptible Light; Brings Him Into A Great Deal Of Bad Company; And Takes Up A Great Deal Of Time, Which Might Be Much Better Employed.

Do As You Would Be Done By, Is The Surest Method Of Pleasing.

History Is But A Confused Heap Of Facts.

A Novel Must Be Exceptionally Good To Live As Long As The Average Cat.

Firmness Of Purpose Is One Of The Best Instruments Of Success.

Sex: The Pleasure Is Momentary, The Position Ridiculous, And The Expense Damnable.

Not To Care For Philosophy Is To Be A True Philospher.

Nothing Sharpens The Arrow Of Sarcasm So Keenly As The Courtesy That Polishes It; No Reproach Is Like That We Clothe With A Smile And Present With A Bow.

Mind Not Only What People Say, But How They Say It; And If You Have Any Sagacity, You May Discover More Truth By Your Eyes Than By Your Ears. People Can Say What They Will, But They Cannot Look Just As They Will; And Their Looks Frequently (reveal) What Their Words Are Calculated To Conceal.

Loud Laughter Is The Mirth Of The Mob, Who Are Only Pleased With Silly Things; For True Wit Or Good Sense Never Excited A Laugh Since The Creation Of The World. A Man Of Parts And Fashion Is Therefore Often Seen To Smile, But Never Heard To Laugh.

At Any Age We Must Cherish Illusions, Consolatory Or Merely Pleasant; In Youth, They Are Omnipresent; In Old Age We Must Search For Them, Or Even Invent Them. But With All That, Boredom Is Their Natural And Inevitable Accompaniment.

Religion Is By No Means A Proper Subject Of Conversation In Mixed Company; It Should Only Be Treated Among A Very Few People Of Learning, For Mutual Instruction. It Is Too Awful And Respectable A Subject To Become A Familiar One.

Knowledge Is A Comfortable And Necessary Retreat And Shelter For Us In An Advanced Age; And If We Do Not Plant It While Young, It Will Give Us No Shade When We Grow Old.

Without Any Extraordinary Effort Of Genius, I Have Discovered That Nature Was The Same Three Thousand Years Ago As At Present; That Men Were But Men Then As Well As Now; That Modes And Customs Vary Often, But That Human Nature Is Always The Same. And I Can No More Suppose, That Men Were Better, Braver, Or Wiser, Fifteen Hundred Or Three Thousand Years Ago, Than I Can Suppose That The Animals Or Vegetables Were Better Than They Are Now.

Be Your Character What It Will, It Will Be Known, And Nobody Will Take It Upon Your Word.

I Would Have All Intoleration Intolerated In Its Turn.

The Manner Of Your Speaking Is Full As Important As The Matter, As More People Have Ears To Be Tickled Than Understandings To Judge.

When Griefs Are Genuine, I Find, There Is Nothing More Vacuous, More Burdensome, Or Even More Impertinent, Than Letters Of Consolation.

I Sometimes Give Myself Admirable Advice, But I Am Incapable Of Taking It.

Human Nature Is The Same Everywhere; The Modes Only Are Different.

An Honest Man May Really Love A Pretty Girl, But Only An Idiot Marries Her Merely Because She Is Pretty.

A Cheerful, Easy, Open Countenance Will Make Fools Think You A Good-natured Man, And Make Designing Men Think You An Undesigning One.

A Man Who Cannot Command His Temper, His Attention, And His Countenance Should Not Think Of Being A Man Of Business.

The Vulgar Only Laugh, But Never Smile; Whereas Well-bred People Often Smile, But Seldom Laugh.

Manners Must Adorn Knowledge And Smooth Its Way In The World, Without Them It Is Like A Great Rough Diamond, Very Well In A Closet By Way Of Curiosity, And Also For Its Intrinsic Value; But Most Prized When Polished.

Little Secrets Are Commonly Told Again, But Great Ones Generally Kept.

When A Person Is In Fashion, All They Do Is Right.

Clothes And Fashion

Swift Speedy Time, Feathered With Flying Hours, Dissolves The Beauty Of The Fairest Brow.

True Politeness Is Perfect Ease And Freedom. It Simply Consists In Treating Others Just As You Love To Be Treated Yourself.

Treating Others

If You Are Not In Fashion, You Are Nobody.

Buy Good Books, And Read Them; The Best Books Are The Commonest, And The Last Editions Are Always The Best, If The Editors Are Not Blockheads.

Should You Be Unfortunate Enough To Have Vices, You May, To A Certain Degree, Even Dignify Them By A Strict Observance Of Decorum;at Least They Will Lose Something Of Their Natural Turpitude.

There Will Never Be A Better Time To Start Quitting Smoking Than Today

Assurance And Intrepidity, Under The White Banner Of Seeming Modesty, Clear The Way For Merit, That Would Otherwise Be Discouraged By Difficulties...

Advice Is Seldom Welcome, And Those Who Need It The Most, Like It The Least.

Good-breeding Carries Along With It A Dignity That Is Respected By The Most Petulant. Ill-breeding Invites And Authorizes The Familiarity Of The Most Timid.

Many Young People Adopt Pleasures For Which They Have Not The Least Taste, Only Because They Are Called By That Name.... You Mustallow That Drunkenness, Which Is Equally Destructive To Body And Mind, Is A Fine Pleasure. Gaming, That Draws You Into A Thousand Scraps, Leaves You Penniless, And Gives You The Air And Manners Of An Outrageous Madman, Is Another Most Exquisite Pleasure, Is It Not? As To Running After Women, The Consequences Of That Vice Are Only The Loss Of One's Nose, The Total Destruction Of Health, And, Not Unfrequently, The Being Run Through The Body.

A Learned Parson, Rusting In His Cell At Oxford Or Cambridge, Will Reason Admirably Well Upon The Nature Of Man; Will Profoundly Analyze The Head, The Heart, The Reason, The Will, The Passions, The Senses, The Sentiments, And All Those Subdivisions Of We Know Not What ; And Yet, Unfortunately, He Knows Nothing Of Man... He Views Man As He Does Colours In Sir Isaac Newton's Prism, Where Only The Capital Ones Are Seen; But An Experienced Dyer Knows All Their Various Shades And Gradations, Together With The Result Of Their Several Mixtures.

It Is Often More Necessary To Conceal Contempt Than Resentment; The Former Is Never Forgiven, But The Later Is Sometimes Forgotten.

If A Marriage Is Going To Work Well, It Must Be On A Solid Footing, Namely Money, And Of That Commodity It Is The Girl With The Smallest Dowry Who, To My Knowledge, Consumes The Most, To Infuriate Her Husband. All The Same, It Is Only Fair That The Marriage Should Pay For Past Pleasures, Since It Will Scarcely Procure Any In The Future.

A Joker Is Near Akin To A Buffoon; And Neither Of Them Is The Least Related To Wit.

Be Wiser Than Other People If You Can; But Do Not Tell Them So.

Our Conjectures Pass Upon Us For Truths; We Will Know What We Do Not Know, And Often, What We Cannot Know: So Mortifying To Our Pride Is The Base Suspicion Of Ignorance.

Lady ---- Is Safely Delivered Of A Son, To The Great Joy Of That Noble Family. The Expression, Of A Woman's Having Brought Her Husband A Son, Seems To Be A Proper And Cautious One; For It Is Never Said, From Whence.

To This Principle Of Vanity, Which Philosophers Call A Mean One, And Which I Do Not, I Owe A Great Part Of The Figure Which I Have Made In Life.

There Is A Sort Of Veteran Women Of Condition, Who, Having Lived Always In The Grand Mode, And Having Possibly Had Some Gallantries, Together With The Experience Of Five And Twenty Or Thirty Years, Form A Young Fellow Better Than All The Rules That Can Be Given Him.

I Recommend You To Take Care Of The Minutes, For The Hours Will Take Care Of Themselves.

Most Arts Require Long Study And Application, But The Most Useful Art Of All, That Of Pleasing, Requires Only The Desire.

Our Prejudices Are Our Mistresses; Reason Is At Best Our Wife, Very Often Heard Indeed, But Seldom Minded.

A Foreign Minister, I Will Maintain It, Can Never Be A Good Man Of Business If He Is Not An Agreeable Man Of Pleasure Too. Half His Business Is Done By The Help Of His Pleasures: His Views Are Carried On, And Perhaps Best, And Most Unsuspectedly, At Balls, Suppers, Assemblies, And Parties Of Pleasure; By Intrigues With Women, And Connections Insensibly Formed With Men, At Those Unguarded Hours Of Amusement.

Great Merit, Or Great Failings, Will Make You Respected Or Despised; But Trifles, Little Attentions, Mere Nothings, Either Done Or Neglected, Will Make You Either Liked Or Disliked In The General Run Of The World.

Learn To Shrink Yourself To The Size Of The Company You Are In. Take Their Tone, Whatever It May Be, And Excell In It If You Can;but Never Pretend To Give The Tone. A Free Conversation Will No More Bear A Dictator Than A Free Government Will.

Pleasure Is A Necessary Reciprocal. No One Feels, Who Does Not At The Same Time Give It. To Be Pleased, One Must Please. What Pleases You In Others, Will In General Please Them In You.

To Take A Wife Merely As An Agreeable And Rational Companion, Will Commonly Be Found To Be A Grand Mistake.

Sexual Intercourse Is A Grossly Overrated Pastime; The Position Is Undignified, The Pleasure Momentary And The Consequences Damnable.

You Will Find That Reason, Which Always Ought To Direct Mankind, Seldom Does; But That Passions And Weaknesses Commonly Usurp Itsseat, And Rule In Its Stead.

If Ever A Man And His Wife, Or A Man And His Mistress, Who Pass Nights As Well As Days Together, Absolutely Lay Aside All Good Breeding, Their Intimacy Will Soon Degenerate Into A Coarse Familiarity, Infallibly Productive Of Contempt Or Disgust.

Never Seem Wiser, Nor More Learned, Than The People You Are With. Wear Your Learning, Like Your Watch, In A Private Pocket: And Do Not Merely Pull It Out And Strike It; Merely To Show That You Have One.

Vanity, Or To Call It By A Gentler Name, The Desire Of Admiration And Applause, Is, Perhaps, The Most Universal Principle Of Humanactions.... Where That Desire Is Wanting, We Are Apt To Be Indifferent, Listless, Indolent, And Inert.... I Will Own To You, Under The Secrecy Of Confession, That My Vanity Has Very Often Made Me Take Great Pains To Make Many A Woman In Love With Me, If I Could, For Whose Person I Would Not Have Given A Pinch Of Snuff.

The Heart Never Grows Better By Age; I Fear Rather Worse, Always Harder. A Young Liar Will Be An Old One, And A Young Knave Will Only Be A Greater Knave As He Grows Older.

A Wise Man Will Live As Much Within His Wit As His Income.... Bear This Truth Always In Your Mind, That You May Be Admired For Your Wit, If You Have Any; But That Nothing But Good Sense And Good Qualities Can Make You Be Loved.

Fear Invites Danger; Concealed Cowards Insult Known Ones.

Never Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do Today.

Always Make The Best Of The Best, And Never Make Bad Worse.

Best Of The Best

Remember, That When I Speak Of Pleasures I Always Mean The Elegant Pleasures Of A Rational Being, And Not The Brutal Ones Of A Swine. I Mean La Bonne Chère, Short Of Gluttony; Wine, Infinitely Short Of Drunkenness; Play, Without The Least Gaming; And Gallantry, Without Debauchery.

Cottages Have Them (falsehood And Dissimulation) As Well As Courts, Only With Worse Manners.

The Rich Are Always Advising The Poor, But The Poor Seldom Return The Compliment.

Good Manners Are The Settled Medium Of Social, As Specie Is Of Commercial, Life; Returns Are Equally Expected For Both.

Unlike My Subject Will I Frame My Song, It Shall Be Witty And It Shan't Be Long.

There Is Nothing So Necessary, But At The Same Time There Is Nothing More Difficult (i Know It By Experience) For You Young Fellows, Than To Know How To Behave Yourselves Prudently Towards Those Whom You Do Not Like. Your Passions Are Warm, And Your Heads Are Light; You Hate All Those Who Oppose Your Views, Either Of Ambition Or Love; And A Rival, In Either, Is Almost A Synonymous Term For Any Enemy.

Letters Should Be Easy And Natural, And Convey To The Persons To Whom We Send Them Just What We Should Say To The Persons If We Were With Them.

Knowledge May Give Weight, But Accomplishments Give Luster, And Many More People See Than Weigh.

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